There is a mysterious power in the spoken word which gets a greater hold upon us than simply pa.s.sing the same word through the mind or looking at it on the printed page. The vocal expression of a thought makes a greater impression upon the memory and especially influences the subconscious mind. It works like a leaven in the whole nature, putting agents in motion that establish a connection between us and our desires, the objects for which we are working. The persistent affirmation of our ability to do that which we have undertaken in a superb, kingly fashion, is a great stimulus, a positive, creative force.

There is nothing more helpful in building a strong positive character than bracing yourself up by searching, heart to heart talks with yourself. In this way, better perhaps than in any other, you can take stock of your mental a.s.sets and improve yourself all along the line.

If you are timid, for instance, or even feel that you are something of a coward, stoutly deny it. Insist that you are no shirker, no coward, that you are brave even to daring. Boldly a.s.sume the quality of a hero, vehemently affirm that you actually possess invincible courage, and you will be surprised at your immediate increase of strength and positiveness. Deny that you have any weakness, defect or deficiency which can handicap your career. Insist upon affirming the opposite quality, the winning quality.

If you lack decision, if you are a waverer, a vacillator, if you are a putter-off of things, if procrastination runs in your blood, persistently affirm that you possess the opposite qualities. At the same time resolve that you are going not only to play the heroic part in life, that you are not only going to begin work upon the duty awaiting you, but that you are going to put it through, that you are going to do things, and that you will never again allow yourself to waver, to procrastinate in the smallest matter, even if you do make mistakes now and then. Better make a mistake and forge ahead than to remain negative and inactive.

The habit of vigorous affirmation is the habit of victory. But remember that action must follow on the heels of resolution or you will never go any farther. Affirmation and resolution without prompt endeavor for realization are worse than useless. It is the man of action, of continued and repeated action, the man who never acknowledges defeat who ultimately wins out.

During our Civil War the Southern generals said it didn't do any good to beat Grant, because he never knew when he was beaten and, consequently, wouldn't stay beaten.

Men who leave their mark on the world are men of iron resolution, of grim determination. If youth were only taught at home and in school the power of an inflexible resolve, an inexorable affirmation of the thing they are determined to accomplish; if they were only taught the invincibleness of an unshakable will, of the positive victorious mental att.i.tude, of a resolve which knows no defeat, life would not be half so hard.

"Nerve us with incessant affirmatives. Don't bark against the bad, but chant the beauties of the good." The positive, creative, affirmative elements are our friends. They draw us our sure supply. All negatives are our enemies. They drive away supply. Affirm the good, never the bad; the bright, never the dark; the true, and never the false; harmony, never discord. We should never forget that whatever tends to optimism is ready to "give us a lift."

The first step toward a happy, successful life is to get control of the supply that is ready to flow in answer to our demand. This you can do by forming the habit of affirming that the best will come to you, that only the things that are good for you can come into your life. Don't let yourself slip into the foolish habit of antic.i.p.ating trouble, misfortune, sickness, disaster, accidents. To antic.i.p.ate or expect such things is to affirm their reality and draw them to you. The habit of antic.i.p.ating them will get them into the habit of "arriving." You will thus be drawn into a current of circ.u.mstance corresponding to the character of your negative thought.

Put yourself into a positive, success and happiness att.i.tude the first thing every morning by taking time, even if only a few minutes, to commune with the Creator. Get into tune with the Infinite, the Source of your strength, the moment you awake. Keep yourself in harmony with the Principle which underlies your being during the day and your every act will be a step forward on the desired road.

Say to yourself constantly, "Happiness is my birthright. I was made to exult in life, not to go about with a long, sad, dejected face as though it had been a bitter disappointment, as though I were a misfit in the world. I was made to radiate joy and gladness and to go through life as a conqueror. If I am indeed a child of the Creator (and I know that I am), it is a positive insult to Him to go through the world as though I were a beggar, a slave. I bear the image of the King of kings, and it is my business to make all men see the likeness. It is my duty to prove my divine heritage by radiating royal manhood."

I know of no practice which will do more for one's growth and life-enlargement than the habit of rising above one's moods and discouragements through perpetual affirmation of one's divinity. If, for example, you get up in the morning feeling negative, blue and discouraged; if you don't feel like working at anything, just go off alone and have a good heart to heart talk with yourself something like this: "Now, look here, young man (or young woman), none of this: you are going to do a grand day's work to-day; you are going to get right out of this condition; you have had enough of it. If you are a real man (or woman) you will rise above your mood and wring victory out of this day, even though it looks so unpromising.

"It does not matter what comes or what goes, what happens or what does not happen, there is one thing I am sure of, and that is, I am going to be positive, creative, to get the most possible out of to-day; I am not going to allow anything to rob me of my happiness, or of my right to _live this day through from beginning to end_, and not merely to exist.

"I do not care what comes, I shall not allow any annoyance, any happening, any circ.u.mstance which may cross my path to rob me of my power and peace of mind. I will not be unhappy to-day, no matter what occurs. I am going to enjoy it to its fullest capacity. This shall be a complete day in my life. I shall not allow the enemies of my happiness to mar it. No misfortune in the past, nothing which has happened to me in days gone by, which has been disagreeable or tragic, no enemies of my efficiency, shall be guests in my spirit's sacred enclosure to-day. Only happy thoughts, joy thoughts, friend thoughts shall find entertainment in my soul this day. No negative thoughts, none of my enemies shall gain admittance to scrawl their hideous autographs on the walls of my mind.

There shall be '_no admittance_' to-day, except to the friends of my best moods. I will tear down all black, sable pictures and hang in their place pictures of joy and gladness, of things which will encourage, cheer, and increase my power. Everything which ever handicapped my life, which has made me uncomfortable and unhappy, shall be expelled from my mental kingdom this day and every coming day."

If you make a resolve like this every morning and live up to it during the day, you cannot help being positive, productive, creative.

The positive mind repels all thought enemies that would hinder progress.

Doubt, fear, despair, worry, these have no place in the creative brain.

They are products of the negative mind. The man who would bend circ.u.mstances to his will can not afford to harbor them.

Hold negative, despondent, discouraged thoughts and your surroundings will be negative, unpropitious. Hold positive, confident, hopeful, cheerful thoughts and a congenial environment will manifest itself.

It is wonderful what right thinking can accomplish even in a naturally weak, negative mind. The insistent and persistent holding of the positive thought, the a.s.surance thought, the self-confidence, the self-faith thought; the determined effort to think and act for oneself, to direct one's own forces will gradually change a negative non-productive mentality into a positive, creative one.

I have known very timid, sensitive people who scarcely dared to say their souls were their own before others, to so cure their habit of self-effacement and so strengthen their weak self-confidence by constant audible affirmation of their own strength, that in a very few months they had largely overcome this weakness.

Fear is negative; courage is positive, affirmative. If we would make our lives effective, we must root out all of the things which keep us in discord, all negative elements, and give ourselves over to the power of affirmation.

Many a person has ruined his life effort by depreciating it and sending out to those about him the negative vibration of his inferiority. We radiate our faith, our confidence in ourselves or our doubts, and distrust. Others catch the contagion of our opinion of ourselves.

Whatever you do, don't set up in your own mind and in that of others a picture of yourself as a weak, ineffective, negative personality.

People do not realize the harm they do by making uncomplimentary and unfavorable remarks about themselves. It does not matter what it may be, the a.s.sertion of anything unfavorable to us or unlike what we wish to be is injurious. How often we hear men and women say: "I never can remember anything. I am always forgetting umbrellas and packages. I never can remember names or faces," and similar negative, depreciatory remarks. It never occurs to them that by making such statements as these they are strengthening their defects. They are not aware that by impressing these unfortunate images of themselves upon their mental mirror they are seriously injuring their self-confidence, their ultimate chance of being what they would like to be or of getting what they desire.

The character of civilization would be radically changed in a short time if parents were to teach their children the wonderful, strengthening, character-building power in the habit of affirmation. If boys and girls were impressed with the truth that the constant affirming of the good, the beautiful and the true, the insistent holding of the ideal of themselves as they would like to be, is a real creative force that tends to actualize what they long for many of the problems of the race would be solved.

As a matter of fact the worst enemy, as well as the best friend, any human being ever has is inside of him. The very mental att.i.tude of the majority of people is utterly antagonistic to their advancement.

A really brainy professional man whom I meet quite often is a striking example of the baneful effects of the negative self-depreciatory thought. He wanted to do something big in his line, but he has had only mediocre success, and in consequence has so soured on life that he seems to have lost the power to enjoy himself. The truth is, the early contracted habit of self-castigation and unfavorable comparison with others who were more fortunate at the start has stayed by him through the years and practically disqualified his mind for real enjoyment or for making the most of his talents.

Another negative character of this type is a man in commercial life who is forever recalling his lack of opportunities. He never tires of referring to the fact that he was handicapped at his very birth by a slovenly slipshod father, and that all through life he has been placed at a great disadvantage compared with other men. He believes, and constantly affirms that he is unlucky, that he has never been at the right spot at the right time, that no matter how hard he works he feels a mysterious something holding him back.

Some malignant fate, or destiny, he complains, is always tripping him up, thwarting his most strenuous efforts, overturning his best laid plans. Through its machinations, although he has worked harder than anybody else he knows, he and his family have remained in poverty, while his a.s.sociates have become prosperous.

The cause of this man's failure is not far to seek. It is plain that he started wrong and has been going wrong ever since. He has been talking failure all his life, affirming hard times, poverty, ill luck, and disappointment. He has been sowing thistles and all sorts of ill weeds in his garden and yet he wonders why his harvests have been so stingy, so blighted and over-shadowed by weeds.

Affirmations, acts, motives, ambitions, mental att.i.tudes are the seeds sown in human gardens. Their character determines what our harvests shall be. Our future reaping depends entirely on our past sowing. What we are enjoying or suffering to-day is the result of yesterday's sowing.

We are reaping weeds, thistles, thorns, or beautiful flowers and luscious fruit, according to the seeds we have sown.

The only soil in which our good seed thoughts will flourish is that of mental harmony. In this fruitful ground lies the secret of all efficiency and happiness. To come into unity with the Author of our being is to realize perfect mental harmony. And this is the first requisite of an efficient life, a goal that can be reached only by the road of constant, unfailing affirmation.

When you long for something that it is perfectly legitimate for you to have, sow your affirmation seed in perfect confidence that it will bloom in reality. Say to yourself, "Our Father-Mother-G.o.d is no respecter of persons. He is not partial in his treatment of His children. They all have the same rights, the same privileges. He will give me through my own effort what I need, what I ask for. The poorest, most ragged wretch that crawls has just as many hours in his day as has the ermined king. I can and I will do what I long to do. I will be what I desire to be."

Affirm this again and again to yourself. Do not wait for an opportunity, make your opportunity. The power of affirmation will work miracles for you.

Most people seem to think that if they were only in an ideal environment, without worry or anxiety regarding the living-getting problem, if they were free from pain and in vigorous health, they would then be perfectly happy. But, as a matter of fact, we are not half so dependent for happiness upon environment, upon circ.u.mstances, as we imagine we are. False ambition, envy and jealousy are responsible for much of our uneasiness, our restlessness and discontent. Our minds are so intent upon what other people have and are doing that we do not get a t.i.the of the enjoyment and satisfaction out of our own work, out of our own possessions, that they should afford us. We think so much about what others have and spend so much time wondering why we cannot have similar things that we do not see the beauty, loveliness and sweetness in our own environment. We question and envy when we should affirm and realize. We neglect the most potent means within our grasp--the miracle-working power of affirmation. The supply will come in answer to our demand.

Every one of us has an inalienable right to be comfortable, prosperous, free from anxiety,--in short to be happy. Man was not intended to be a worrying machine. The fundamental principle of the human const.i.tution is based on harmony and, when we are in harmonious relations with the universe, we attain the maximum of efficiency, of power, of usefulness to the world. It is then we get the maximum of enjoyment and happiness out of life. Is it not worth while to get into such relations? Is it not foolish to remain in discord when by the simple process of affirmation, linked with divine faith and effort, we can transform ourselves and our environment?

CHAPTER XI

THE TRIUMPH OF HEALTH IDEALS

"What is the body after all but the spirit breaking through the flesh, or health but beauty in the organism?"

Every good emotion makes a health and life promoting change in the body. Every thought is registered in the brain by a physical change more or less permanent in the tissue cells.

The coming man will find it as easy to counteract an unfriendly, vicious thought by turning on the counter thought to neutralize it, as to rob the hot water of its burning power by turning on the cold water faucet.

There is a divine something in man which never was sick and never can be, that divine self, the image of the Creator, perfect, unchangeable, indestructible, immortal, and which some time and somewhere must drive out all trace of sin, disease and death in mankind.

HUFELAND.

Even those who do not believe in Christian Science as a whole must be impressed with the Scientists' wonderful religious optimism. Their inspiring mental att.i.tude, the hopeful way in which they face life, always looking toward the light, toward health, toward prosperity, toward success, and turning their backs upon the darkness, upon everything which can mar their health, their efficiency, their happiness, is creating a new world for thousands of discouraged souls.

Christian Scientists insist that since G.o.d has created everything that is, and since He is perfect, is all-in-all, He could not possibly create anything unlike Himself, such as disease, or anything else which is not good for His children. G.o.d is harmony, they reason, and He could not create discord. He is truth and He could not create error. G.o.d is love and He could not create the opposite of love,--hatred, jealousy, envy, selfishness, any evil emotion or pa.s.sion. Hence all disease, all discord, all the enemies of the race, all Satanic influences in the world must be accounted for in some other way than as decrees of His will, for Perfection could not have produced these imperfections. Love could not create anything antagonistic to itself.

Scientists take a positive and vigorous stand against the admission to their mind of any of the enemies of their health, their prosperity, their happiness or their destiny. Not only is all thought of failure and poverty banished, but they close the portals of their mind against fear, worry and anxiety, against the ravages of jealousy, the poison of hatred, envy, and selfishness. They try to keep their mental realm clear of all black, forbidding pictures, of all sorts of distressing emotions and unfriendly thoughts, while they open it wide to the things which help, inspire and bring hope, the friend thoughts and emotions,--joy, gladness, love, truth, and divine inspiration.

They believe that all human beings were not only made to be healthy but also to be happy, successful, prosperous. They regard poverty, no less than illness, as a mental disease, to be treated in the same manner as bodily disease; and this cheerful religious optimism which they try steadily to maintain is not alone a healing force, but is also a great disease-resisting power.

Health, wholeness, is one of the most important and necessary factors for the attainment of those things which every normal human being desires,--peace, power, plenty, success and happiness. The Scientists'

religious optimism is a potent force for placing the mind in the most favorable condition for the attainment of all these things. It removes all hindrances to full, complete self-expression.